Jimmie Rivera no longer under UFC contract
The veteran bantamweight contender is just 1-3 in his last four fights.
One of the UFC’s mainstays at bantamweight appears to be gone from the roster.
MMA Junkie’s John Morgan reported on Monday that along with former title challenger Demian Maia (which has been known since his loss to Belal Muhammad), Jimmie Rivera’s contract is up and his profile has been removed from the roster. A UFC official told him, “both have fought out their deals” but didn’t confirm that they won’t re-sign.
Rivera (23-5) is coming off a rematch loss to Pedro Munhoz in February at UFC Vegas 20: Rozenstruik vs. Gane, picking up Fight of the Night honors in the process. He began his UFC career 5-0 as part of an overall 20-fight winning streak, notably beating Munhoz the first time, as well as Thomas Almeida and Urijah Faber. His winning ways crashed quickly when he was knocked out by Marlon Moraes in just 33 seconds back in June of 2018.
After besting John Dodson at UFC 228, Rivera was defeated by current champion Aljamain Sterling and former champion Petr Yan on the scorecards. He took a featherweight bout against Cody Stamann last summer by decision before losing to Munhoz.
The most recent UFC rankings had Rivera placed at #13 in perhaps the deepest division in the promotion and all of MMA. We’ll see what the future holds for the 32-year-old as he hits free agent status.